: Pointillism? Mosaic? Vector Bokeh? Is there a name for this effect and what would be the best way to achieve it in Photoshop or Illustrator in terms of filling a different vector shape with

@Kaufman565

That kind of effect is sometimes described as 'particles'. Effects like it on a large scale are often created using particle generators in rendering software like those in Adobe After Effects, 3D software or in HTML5.

In a logo, however, it's more likely to be done by hand in regular design software, for fine control - but the term is sometimes still used because the final effects are often similar.



Here's a fun interactive particle version of the Google logo from Google Labs nicely demonstrating the overlap between hand-controlled design and live, software-driven dynamic particles. Each particle / blob / dot / circle's position has been carefully set by some designer, and they've also been programmed to have particular behaviours based on what the mouse pointer is doing.

Static screenshots:

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@Murray976

To some degree this can be accomplished via scripting and Illustrator. Check THIS THREAD at Adobe.com. NOTE; it seems the link in the thread to version 1.2 of the script is broken. However the link to version 1.1 earlier in the thread still seems to work.

User Jongware has written a script for Illustrator which fills shapes with various sized circles. Adding the gradients afterward is a simple matter.

This may save a bit of time over a hand placed method.

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@Shelley591

I'd call it 'dots'.

And I can't imagine there's a better way than by hand--at least for the level of detail you're going for.

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